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Webinar Archives

Large marine protected areas (MPAs) have recently been established throughout the world at an unprecedented pace, yet the value of these reserves for mobile species conservation remains uncertain. This webinar will describe how recent advances in satellite technology and big data analytics have improved our ability to observe and understand the benefits of large MPAs. As a primary case study, the webinar will outline recent efforts to track fishing vessels and reef sharks within the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, a U.S.-administered protected area in the central Pacific Ocean.

Webinar co-sponsored by the NOAA National MPA Center, MPA News, and the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org).

Resource managers must monitor ecologically appropriate indicators to effectively evaluate the performance of their activities and to guide adaptive management. To support indicator monitoring efforts, we developed a set of ecological condition and ecosystem service indicators for five ecosystems in the Gulf using an ecological resilience framework. With input from ecosystem experts, we created conceptual ecological models that identify the drivers, stressors, major ecological factors and their key ecological attributes. Using the models as a guide, we identified indicators, metrics and assessment points that will allow monitoring programs to better gauge ecological condition and ecosystem service provision. This work can be used directly by resource managers and restoration practitioners to guide and evaluate the performance of their efforts.

Webinar co-sponsored by the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org) and MEAM.

Data needs, data availability, data sharing, data management… these are always hot topics when countries or institutions embark on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). But how much do data influence MSP processes and is a lack of data a constraint for successful MSP?

The webinar will provide practical experiences from Australia and Israel on how data issues have been solved for planning and management efforts at sea. We will discuss the following key points:

What kind of data is needed to start and conduct a MSP process?

How much do scope and objectives of a MSP process influence the need for data? And how much do data influence MSP processes?

This webinar was presented by Susan Preston of Environment and Climate Change Canada.

This new toolkit contains key tools and resources for planning and undertaking an ecosystem services assessment and the analyses that contribute to such an assessment. It provides practical step-by-step advice on determining if an “ecosystem services” approach is needed in a given situation; completing a robust ecosystem service assessment; understanding what the results of such an assessment mean and what they do not mean; and incorporating ecosystem services analyses and considerations in a wide range of policy, decision, and management processes. The Ecosystem Services Toolkit is freely available for download at http://biodivcanada.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=B443A05E-1.

The webinar will provide an overview on fisheries certification, discuss its applicability for small-scale fisheries in developing country contexts, and analyze alternative approaches that may provide similar benefits and promote the sustainability of fisheries. We will discuss the following key points:

Benefits and deficits of certification schemes to promote ecological, economic and social sustainability of fisheries.

This webinar was presented by John Tobin-de la Puente of Cornell University.

The Coalition for Private Investment in Conservation (CPIC) was launched in September 2016 to develop new investment models and funding pipelines for conservation and sustainable development. Three of the coalition’s initial focus areas are watershed management, green infrastructure for coastal resilience, and sustainable coastal fisheries. The group is currently working on developing investment “blueprints” for these areas, i.e., models for investable deals can that produce both environmental and financial returns. Once these blueprints are ready, the coalition will serve as a hub to connect investable conservation projects with financial organizations that are able to structure deals around those projects. CPIC’s founding partners include Credit Suisse, The Nature Conservancy, IUCN, and Cornell University. Read a 2017 MPA News interview with John Tobin-de la Puente at https://mpanews.openchannels.org/news/mpa-news/400-billion-potential-private-investment-conservation-investors-looking-projects-what. Learn more about CPIC at http://cpicfinance.com.

Webinar co-sponsored by the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org) and MEAM.

This webinar was presented by Chloe Harvey of The Reef-World Foundation.

Join Chloe Harvey of Reef-World to learn about Green Fins, a public-private partnership developed by UNEP and The Reef-World Foundation to lead to a measurable reduction in negative environmental impacts associated with SCUBA diving and snorkeling. This webinar will provide information on the Green Fins approach, share successes, and discuss lessons learned. The presentation will highlight newly released tools and resources available to support managers who are interested in reducing the impacts of marine tourism and applying the Green Fins approach in their areas.

Webinar co-sponsored by the NOAA National MPA Center, MPA News, and the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org).

Blue Solutions provides a global knowledge network and capacity development platform to collate, share, and generate solutions for effective management and equitable governance of our planet’s marine and coastal living spaces, and to develop capacity for the ocean community on the initiative’s priority topics.

For this webinar, presenters will showcase two examples of “Blue Solutions” case studies for scaling community-led marine protected area management, explain what made them successful and discuss with the audience.

This webinar was presented by Casey Dennehy of the Surfrider Foundation.

The Surfrider Leadership Academy is a unique program on the Washington State coast that has been offered to coastal conservation leaders the last two years. The program follows the principles of networked leadership, collaboration, and Marshall Ganz's public narrative framework and concludes with a self-identified group project. Learn more about the Academy at https://washington.surfrider.org/surfrider-leadership-academy-washington-coast.

Webinar co-sponsored by the NOAA National MPA Center, MPA News, and the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org).

This webinar was presented by Stephen Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center.

Rewards for whistleblowers – people who inform authorities when a law has been broken – have been extremely successful when effectively implemented. Whistleblower rewards incentivize insiders to report information, and support law enforcement’s ability to detect crime that they might not otherwise uncover.

There have been over 70 whistleblower cases dealing with marine pollution under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) in recent years – generally involving situation in which ships have illegally dumped oil somewhere in the world in violation of the MARPOL Protocol. Some of these cases have resulted in rewards of more than US $1 million to the whistleblowers under APPS’s whistleblower reward provision—which allows informants to receive up to 50% of the collected proceeds from a successful prosecution. The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) is now working to utilize whistleblower provisions in other laws aimed at protecting marine wildlife, such as the Endangered Species Act, Lacey Act, and Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Enforcement Act, to combat the catch, sale, and transport of protected species and fishing conducted in no-fishing areas. These laws contain underutilized reward provisions with great potential for improving detection and enforcement–but for the past 30 years they have not been implemented. The NWC launched the Global Wildlife Whistleblower Program to raise awareness of whistleblower reward provisions and provide assistance – including a safe, worldwide reporting system – to wildlife whistleblowers. This webinar will provide an overview of whistleblower reward laws relevant to marine practitioners, as well as resources to help wildlife and marine pollution whistleblowers. Learn more about how US whistleblowing laws could open up new financing streams for MPAs worldwide. Learn more about the National Whistleblower Center.

Webinar co-sponsored by the EBM Tools Network (co-coordinated by NatureServe and OpenChannels.org) and MEAM.